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And in the real world... RBS, Vauxhall, M&S, Whitbread and more

LONDON - Today's round-up of the biggest business stories.

World news... round-up

Royal Bank of Scotland is exploring a government-backed plan to give up all of its 312 RBS-branded branches in England and Wales, in a radical move to satisfy Brussels state aid authorities. Source:Financial Times

Unite, the UK union, on Tuesday said it had secured agreement from Magna to maintain production at General Motors’ two UK plants beyond 2013, removing a key obstacle to the Canadian company’s takeover of Opel and Vauxhall with Russia’s Sberbank. Source: Financial Times

Three Marks & Spencer managers yesterday gave their pitch for the top job at an investor day in which the group announced a £1 billion investment in overhauling its IT and supply chain. Source: The Independent

Whitbread said on Tuesday that a like-for-like sales decline was easing at Premier Inn, its budget hotel chain, as it unveiled a 10 per cent fall in profit for the first half of its financial year. Source:Financial Times

Bloomberg has promised to create a new model for the business weekly magazine after winning the auction for Business Week with an offer of just a few million dollars for the 80-year-old US financial magazine. Source: Financial Times